and doctrinal confusion.
The anti-anti-Church Growth blogs have stalled out again. The fake blogger probably went back into rehab or violated parole. Tim Felt-needs has returned to his favorite subject, writing about himself. Joe Krohn has one post - boycott Ichabod - and he is a daily communicant.
I am waiting for the Church Growth people to write a positive witness for their peculiar alloy of nominal Lutheran membership and febrile Reformed doctrine. Valleskey tried and failed, producing a worse book than Werning's worst. But Valleskey had Kelm's help, so that explains the leaden quality of his prose and the stubbly quality of his theology.
The anti-anti-CG bloggers simply copy me and rant. I hope that is therapeutic for them.
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brett-meyer (http://brett-meyer.myopenid.com) has left a new comment on your post "Anti-Anti-CG Blogs in Epic Fail Mode":
They're a whiny bunch. I had to laugh out loud at one point when they were discussing whether or not your lack of attention to their posturing was an admission that they were right.
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GJ - That is especially funny. I do check on them from time to time, to check for exploding heads and new rants. The fake claims it is a horrible lie that WELS has women ministers.
However, the ELS/WELS boards of doctrine met about WELS women staff ministers (Larry Oh's program) consecrating and distributing Holy Communion. The most the timid boards could do was issue a moratorium, a delay, on the practice.
Here is a new riddle - What do you call a book with no spine? This We Believe!
WELS is now in the same position as ELCA was when the larger sect began mincing around about homosexual ordination. It was only a matter of time before the Lavender Mafia got what it wanted, in a flamboyant display of power politics.
Given the lack of confessional integrity in WELS and the ELS, there is no stopping women's ordination. They could not say no to a Fuller program headed by Larry Oh!, so why would they cringe at women's ordination in 2012? They already have women ministers and women acting as ordained pastors.
5 comments:
They're a whiney bunch. I had to laugh out loud at one point when they were discussing whether or not your lack of attention to their posturing was an admission that they were right.
Hee hee hee: 'book with no spine'...
Concerning female staff ministers: why is the Greek in 1 Cor 14:34 translate (transliterally)
"Let the women in the assemblies be silent, for it is not permitted to them to speak, but let them be submissive, as also the law says."
Why a Jussive construction (Permit or Allow) and not a Passive Periphrastic (Must or Ought to)? Is God using that verb form in order to allow for multiple cultures' applications of the passage? That is a very dangerous thing to assume, but this is an unusual construction that Paul uses, it seems, exclusively when referring to roles of women.
Truly, I'd not want to receive holy communion from a female staff minister; but this syntactical construction is something that has troubled and prodded my mind since I discovered the joys of original language.
Here are some quotes from Luther which speak to the subject of women's roles in the church.
"Rather, priesthood and power have to be there first, brought from baptism and common to all Christians through the faith which builds them upon Christ the true high priest, as St. Peter says here. But to exercise such power and to put it to work is not every man’s business. Only he who is called by the common assembly, or the man representing the assembly’s order and will, does this work in the stead of and as the representative of the common assembly and power." Page 3, second full paragraph
"Mostly the functions of a priest are these: to teach, to preach and proclaim the Word of God, to baptize, to consecrate or administer the Eucharist, to bind and loose sins, to pray for others, to sacrifice, and to judge of all doctrine and spirits. Certainly these are splendid and royal duties. But the first and foremost of all on which everything else depends, is the teaching of the Word of God. For we teach with the Word, we consecrate with the Word, we bind and absolve sins by the Word, we baptize with the Word, we sacrifice with the Word, we judge all things by the Word. Therefore when we grant the Word to anyone, we cannot deny anything to him pertaining to the exercise of his priesthood." Page 7, first full paragraph
"Now you might say: “What kind of situation will arise if it is true that we are all priests and should all preach [1 Peter 2:5]? Should no distinction be made among the people, and should the women, too, be priests?” Answer: In the New Testament no priest has to be tonsured. Not that this is evil in itself, for one surely has the right to have the head shaved clean. But one should not make a distinction between those who do so and the common Christian. Faith cannot tolerate this. Thus those who are now called priests would all be laymen like the others, and only a few officiants would be elected by the congregation to do the preaching. Thus there is only an external difference because of the office to which one is called by the congregation. Before God, however, there is no distinction, and only a few are selected from the whole group to administer the office in the stead of the congregation. They all have the office, but nobody has any more authority than the other person has. Therefore nobody should come forward of his own accord and preach in the congregation. No, one person must be chosen from the whole group and appointed.” Page 8, first full paragraph
Cont...
Cont...
"As St. Paul says in Gal. 3:28, you must pay no attention to distinctions when you want to look at Christians. You must not say: “This is a man or a woman; this is a servant or a master; this person is old or young.” They are all alike and only a spiritual people. Therefore they are all priests. All may proclaim God’s Word, except that, as St. Paul teaches in 1 Cor. 14:34, women should not speak in the congregation. They should let the men preach, because God commands them to be obedient to their husbands. God does not interfere with the arrangement. But he makes no distinction in the matter of authority." Page 8, first full paragraph
"But in the New Testament the Holy Spirit, speaking through St. Paul, ordained that women should be silent in the churches and assemblies [I Cor. 14:34], and said that this is the Lord’s commandment. Yet he knew that previously Joel [2:28 f.] had proclaimed that God would pour out his Spirit also on handmaidens. Furthermore, the four daughters of Philip prophesied (Acts 21[:9]). But in the congregations or churches where there is a ministry women are to be silent and not preach [I Tim. 2:12]. Otherwise they may pray, sing, praise, and say “Amen,” and read at home, teach one another, exhort, comfort, and interpret the Scriptures as best they can."
Page 15, first paragraph
http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/LutherGenderMinistry.pdf
Church and change offers so little seminal thinking and so much puffery.
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